Befuddled about bearings, a couple of questions

[Flyinfool]

It looks like the backside of the staircase is accessible. Take a look to see how well built it is. Might be a good time to rebuild or at least reinforce them. I understand the old house thing, I don't know an exact date but my house was built in the late 1800s. When I rebuilt the basement stairs i cut the stringers out of 14" wide lam beams and used 4 of them for a 36" wide staircase that is 7 stairs high. At the middle I have 4x4 posts going straight down to concrete foundation blocks. The treads are 2x12 planks. I know those stairs will never move under any load I can get on them. I rebuilt the stairs after all my equipment was already in the basement for decades because the original stairs were rotting out from the back side. When it comes to safety there is no such thing as overkill.

You do NOT want your control line running over any sharp corner You must rig something to round off the corner. It does not matter if that corner is the edge of a door frame or the edge of the top step. Pieces of those old rolled up plastic kids snow sliders work great as corner cushions.

 

[Firstram]

That's a great way to build a set of steps. I once worked for a builder who cut all of his stringers out of LVLs, strong and silent!

 

[AGCB97]

I had a 8 1/2' homemade bilco when I was building airplanes (3) in the basement. Had metal roofing on top and lifted it with a boat trailer winch attached to house. Have since turned it into a small storage room.

You'll find all kinds of uses for it.
Aaron

 

[WobblyHand]

It looks like the backside of the staircase is accessible. Take a look to see how well built it is. Might be a good time to rebuild or at least reinforce them. I understand the old house thing, I don't know an exact date but my house was built in the late 1800s. When I rebuilt the basement stairs i cut the stringers out of 14" wide lam beams and used 4 of them for a 36" wide staircase that is 7 stairs high. At the middle I have 4x4 posts going straight down to concrete foundation blocks. The treads are 2x12 planks. I know those stairs will never move under any load I can get on them. I rebuilt the stairs after all my equipment was already in the basement for decades because the original stairs were rotting out from the back side. When it comes to safety there is no such thing as overkill.

You do NOT want your control line running over any sharp corner You must rig something to round off the corner. It does not matter if that corner is the edge of a door frame or the edge of the top step. Pieces of those old rolled up plastic kids snow sliders work great as corner cushions.

Good idea on reinforcing. Was planning to replace the treads with 2x10's. Stringers seem ok, save for two irregularly spaced steps. Will put in mid-stringer posts and something at or near the top of the stringers. Of course, plans could change depending on what I find when replacing the treads.

Aware of running lines over or around corners. That either wears (or damages) the line or the line cuts through the corner. I'm trying to envision the snow sliders, but am drawing a blank. What kind are you thinking of? Have a picture? How does the line run through or over the material? Crude sketch would be helpful.

 

[WobblyHand]

Managed to pick up the 2x10's and some 3-1/2" screws this morning. Got some 8' pieces because I can get 3 steps out of 8'. Had other things to do this afternoon, so the steps are tomorrow's project. My wife reminded me they should be painted, so will have to get some paint. Maybe I will take one of the old steps to the paint store, because I don't remember what color we used last time. Some kind of deck grey.

There already are mid stringer posts, as well as posts up near the top. Barring any latent damage (always a crap shoot in an old house) this retreading shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[Flyinfool]

The snow slider is just a flat sheet of plastic. Around 2 feet wide and 5 feet long. It is pretensioned to roll its self up into about a 6 inch tube when you are not on it. Nutting fancy.
Similar to....

Amazon.com

 

[Flyinfool]

OK, here is my first thought of how to rig this.
PLEASE excuse my total lack of artistic ability.



The vertical brown line is a heavy beam, minimum 4x4.
The purple and green are a stop to keep the beam from sliding.
the blue line is a chain with a snatch block at the end.
The red is tour control line being able to go out the door to a car, ground anchor, couple of BIG people, or what ever else you might have as an anchor point.
You may even want to add another plate off the end of the stop to hook the doorway so that the bottom of the beam can not kick out while pulling from the top of it.
Do not use nails to assemble the beam, Ideal is bolts and nuts, second choice is lag bolts or other big screws MADE FOR WOOD.

 

[macardoso]

Just something to think about...

I moved the bed of my 12x36" lathe (~500lbs with headstock and everything else removed) down a steep flight of basement stairs. I only used a rock climbing belay device and a carabiner to lower it. Well actually a pair, but only needed one. Super easy with one friend as a spotter. Once down, I used a cherry picker to move it around the basement.

Going up was a lot harder, did that a few weeks ago.

To get it into my new house basement, I talked to the movers which are taking our furniture from the Uhaul into the house and they said they'd carry the bed of the lathe down no problem. 3 guys. Seemed nuts to me but they were confident. Told me they moved a 2000lb gun safe and a bridgeport into a basement the week before. $100-200 would likely get that plus all your other machines down in one go if you hired someone.

 

[matthewsx]

Guys who move stuff are proud of how strong/smart they are....

 

[whitmore]

OK, here is my first thought of how to rig this.
PLEASE excuse my total lack of artistic ability.

View attachment 382641

The vertical brown line is a heavy beam, minimum 4x4.

The eye of that (blue) chain is your stationary point? The same point can be achieved
by putting a beam over each of the apertures 'main house' and 'Ext Doorway',
with a length of chain between them, and snapping a carabiner on the link
that best centers over your basement stair approach.

Then attach a come-along and lower it that way. Something similar worked for
my (heavy) washing machine, getting it into the basement. My anchor
points were a heavy C-clamp on a structural joist, and a post screwed and
clamped to other structure.

A come-along has a pawl on the handle that moves the cogwheel, and a
catch pawl on the frame that holds the cogwheel from unwinding. So, to lower
down to your basement, just move the handle to the near-UP position, pull up
til its pawl budges the cog, and manually release the catch pawl; then the handle
can move down while still engaging the cog, and at the near-DOWN position,
reengage the catch pawl to grab the cog again. Then, and only then, you
can release the handle pawl and safely shift the unloaded handle back to
near UP, and repeat the cycle.

A come-along will cheerfully shift the load on a downward (cable-extending) trajectory,
as long as you always keep at least one of the two pawls engaged on that cog, and keep
control of the handle.